


Morning After

by Sasha713



Series: After Always [2]
Category: Castle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-15
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-07 19:27:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/434557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sasha713/pseuds/Sasha713
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Beckett woke to an empty bed...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Samfan13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samfan13/gifts).



> SamFan13 told me to post this...lol *hides*

She awoke to an empty bed, her thoughts trying to engage despite the furrow of confusion she felt at waking up alone. She had been waking up alone for a long time, but, this morning, she had never thought she would. Not that she had been over-thinking the morning-after when she had shown up on his doorstep soaked to the bone and shivering.  


She turned over onto her back, feeling the slight ache in her muscles that had more to do with the beating she had taken on that rooftop than any extracurricular activities the night before had brought, but, in that thought, she could also feel the ache in parts of her body that her assassin hadn’t bruised.  


She took a moment to feel the softness of his sheets underneath her, knowing that they would be the type she had only dreamed about having on her bed. Castle, despite his metrosexual tendencies with his sheets and his clothes and his expensive taste, had proven to her last night how much of a man he was.  


And she was feeling the ache of that.  


She glanced at the open bedroom door, feeling an uncharacteristic surge of self-consciousness, wondering how much time she should wait before venturing out to find her host.  


She slid her feet to the floor, feeling the softness of the carpeting slip between her toes, revelling in that feeling before she even recognised the fact that her clothing from the night before were missing. Granted she hadn’t really paid attention to where they had ended up after they had entered his darkened bedroom, but still…they were definitely missing.  


She scanned the room one last time, even glancing under the bed, before she sat still for a moment, thinking that maybe Castle had taken them as some kind of immature payback for everything.  


But she knew that after last night and the tempestuous relationship they had delved into, he wouldn’t do that. Maybe when things settled down for them…but not now.  


She wondered what to do, unwilling to drag the king sized sheet off his massive bed and walk around the house like some kind of Greek goddess, her eyes snagging on his shirt that lay draped over a chair carefully instead as an alternative. He had obviously plucked it off the floor when he had gotten up.  


She snagged the material, slowly dragging it over herself, allowing the sheet to fall before she buttoned the soft material over herself, her movements ginger, and she refused to even pay too much attention to the bruise that had risen on her side from her meeting with the concrete surface of that roof, or the brutal way that assassin had taken her down…  


She shook herself of the thoughts, her eyes closing for a second at the twinge in her muscles that hinted that she had definitely been beaten.  


She stood up, wrapping her arms around herself, his shirt coming down over her body, leaving her legs bare and mottled with goosebumps as she came out from beneath the blankets.  


She moved quietly to the doorway, seeing that the whole apartment was quiet and almost seeming to be untouched. She listened for a moment, hearing the soft hum of the refrigerator, but nothing else.  


“Castle?” She called, glancing towards the stairs that led towards Alexis and Martha’s rooms. But everything was quiet. She ventured further out, coming to the sanctum of his office, hesitating for a moment before she entered, feeling the heaviness of this room, knowing that every word she had ever read in his books had started here. Well, his later books anyway. His words had given him the ability to afford the luxury in which he lived, and it afforded him safety from danger. And yet, for the past four years he had allowed himself to get shot at, frozen, sedated, and beaten up in the name of literacy.  


But she knew that wasn’t the case. After a while, it hadn’t been about the books. She knew that now. Maybe it had always been about her.  


She slid her fingers across the edge of his desk, seeing the laptop sitting closed perfectly aligned on his desk, and she had to wonder if he had some mild OCD tendencies with his writing space. The last thing she wanted to do was disrupt this harmony.  


Instead of circle the desk, she turned her attention to the window across the room, moving across to gaze out at the great view he had. She wondered how much this view distracted him from writing. Or how often he got so lost in his world of fiction that he didn’t look up and see it at all.  


Maybe she was a writer at heart herself. Because it was often her flaw that she would sink herself so deeply into a case that she would lose sight of the beauty outside the walls of her mind.  


Like she had done with her mother’s case. With finding those responsible. For finding her shooter.  


She had enclosed herself so completely in her search for the truth she had lost sight of the most important things in her life. The things that would give it all significance outside solving crimes and finding the ones who deserved to pay for their actions.  


Like this moment.  


Standing in Castle’s office with soft carpet under her toes, gazing out into the beauty of the world outside, the storm having passed during the night, the clear light breaking through pale grey clouds. Standing in the silence after a night ending in passion, the inevitable break down of her barriers which had brought her here. Brought her to _him_.  


“You okay?” His voice made her jump, and after her shot nerves of the last few months, she couldn’t hide that from him. She turned, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear, feeling like he had caught her doing something wrong.  


“I…I was looking for you. I probably shouldn’t have…” She glanced around his space, knowing how possessive he was of keeping it his own. Given the look in his eyes, he wasn’t fully grasping forgiveness yet, and she didn’t want to make things worse by encroaching on…  


“You’re welcome here.” He said firmly, a small smile edging onto his lips. “My mother disrupts my Feng Shui all the time.”  


She noticed then that he was holding two take away coffees and a white bag that she knew held some kind of breakfast.  


He held it up and crossed the room, holding out the coffee to her to take, and their eyes locked as she reached for it, their fingers brushing, the drink warming her fingers. She paused in taking it, forcing him to keep his fingers around the Styrofoam cup as well.  


_I bring you coffee every morning, just to see a smile on your face._   


She smiled now, his words coming back to her now as a soft memory rather than a memory filled with feelings of betrayal and pain.  


“Thank you.” She said, not taking her eyes from his. He released the cup, looking slightly uncertain.  


“I guess you’re wondering where your clothes are.” He said, changing the subject, his eyes skimming down over his shirt tucked around her body.  


“It crossed my mind, yeah.”  


“They were still damp this morning so I…put them in the dryer. But not your jacket…it wouldn’t withstand that treatment.”  


She found a genuine smile edging from her then as she took a sip of her coffee, the hot liquid soothing her.  


“You have a great view in here.” She said, motioning back to the window.  


“I think I agree with you.” He responded and she turned back to him, realising he wasn’t looking at the window. He was looking at her, his eyes skipping down over her and back up, lingering on her uncovered legs.  


“I was talking about the window, Castle.” She said with a grin.  


“I never thought that you would…” He trailed off, stilling as he placed his own coffee down on his desk, looking uncertain again. Like he wasn’t sure how exactly to talk to her openly.  


“Never thought I would what?” She asked, wanting to encourage him to talk to her. She needed that comfort now. That familiarity.  


“Be here. Like this.”  


“Wearing your shirt?” She teased.  


“Yeah. You wear it well by the way. In fact…” He approached and reached for her, his eyes riveted on her face as he drew her closer to him, the warmth of him warming her in turn. “…I don’t think I have seen you look more sexy.”  


His voice was smooth, and she could imagine that his voice, used in conjunction with those words, had gotten many a vixen into bed. Not that she could blame them. 

He was an incredibly charming man.  


He took her coffee and placed it beside his on the desk while keeping his hand on her hip to keep her close, turning back to her and assessing her features with an avid, way too watchful eye, reaching up to smooth his thumb across her cheek bone where she felt a slight tenderness. Not quite a bruise, but…a soreness.  


“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked, giving her that choice. That he wouldn’t force her to talk about it if she wasn’t ready to. And she wasn’t. Not yet. It was too raw. Too close to the surface, and after last night, she didn’t want it to ruin this calm she felt with him. The calm that would be ruined if she allowed those insidious thoughts entrance here.  


“Not yet. I…” She swallowed. “I really want to forget for a while. I need to separate myself from it…”  


He nodded his understanding and didn’t even hesitate to wrap his arms around her when she shifted closer, needing the stability and solidarity he offered.  


“I’m glad you came.” He murmured into her hair, tightening his arms around her for a moment before easing up, like he was trying to adhere her to him.  


“It was time.” She responded, looking out towards his window as she rested her cheek to his shoulder.  


She lifted her head after a minute as his hand slid down her spine in a gentle caress, the softness of his eyes as he looked at her reminding her that this wasn’t just a convenient thing for him. He was in love with her, and for once, the prospect of a man’s love didn’t have her scurrying for the hills despite how long she had kept him at arms-length out of her own fears.  


“So what’s in the bag?” She asked, nodding her head towards the forgotten white paper.  


“Oh! I got us the best breakfast imaginable.”  


“It’s a bear claw, isn’t it?” She asked with a slight grin, and he paused, his eyes skimming over her features with a little bit of awe.  


“It’s nice to see an actual smile.”  


“You brought me coffee and a pastry, Castle.” She responded, breaking from his hold to go attack his version of breakfast. “It’s a good reason to smile.”  


She could almost hear his smirk following her although she didn’t look up. They shared the breakfast, and she ended up sitting up on his desk drinking the rest of her coffee, bare legs warmed by the sunlight filtering into the office.  


“I have imagined this scenario. You, sitting on my desk in nothing but my shirt, looking so…right.” He said, spinning a scene for her.  


“What comes next?” She asked, wondering what his version of this scenario entailed.  


“Well…you would look at me, and smile, tell me I’m a genius and offer me a kiss.” He said with a smirk.  


“Is that all? Come on Castle, you can do better than that. I have read your books remember?”  


“How could I forget? Hmm…” He looked pensive for a moment before he refocused on her.  


“Well, if you would prefer the explicit version… I would approach…” He began to do just that, pressing his palms down on the desk top at either side of her hips. “…whisper all sorts of unrepeatable things in your ear…” his breath hit her ear and she felt a shiver shift through her skin, but this time it wasn’t from cold or fear. It was from arousal.  


“It would make you shiver, although you would try to suppress it. I would reach up…and slowly unbutton my shirt, stating that seeing as it was my property I had every right to claim it back…”  


“Even though I’m naked underneath?” She asked innocently, and he paused as he lifted his head, his lips close to hers, eyes dark and heavy on hers as his fingers stilled against the buttons.  


“Ah, but that fact is only more incentive.”  


“What next?” She breathed, unable to think beyond this little picture he was painting.  


“I would tell you that I imagined you here like this…coming to me while I wrote, disrupting me from the flow of fiction to ensnare me in reality. You would cradle me between your thighs…” she parted her legs slightly to make room for him between them, her thighs clamping at either side of his hips like he was writing it, and she had no choice what came next.  


“…and whisper to me all the things you fantasised about while you lay alone in your bath, reading my words in my books, sipping your wine…wondering how it would feel for me to be right here…pressed so intimately between your thighs.”  


She gripped onto his shoulders as he continued to unbutton his shirt, brushing it aside, his eyes pinned to hers despite the lure of her nakedness where she sat exposed and pinned between him and the desk.  


“Castle…” She whispered, reaching up to slip her hand into his hair, her lips grazing his slightly, holding him in place. “Take me back to bed, okay?”  


This was okay now, she had to remind herself. To let herself feel the intimacy and the desire she felt for him. The desire she had always felt for him. It was a constant. Reliable. Just like he was.  


This time, she wasn’t running away.


End file.
